Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site trwatf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!whuxl!whuxlm!akgua!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!trwatf!root From: root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Re: reply to Teitz (Why is there evil in the world) Message-ID: <776@trwatf.UUCP> Date: Sat, 23-Mar-85 15:24:56 EST Article-I.D.: trwatf.776 Posted: Sat Mar 23 15:24:56 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 26-Mar-85 06:22:51 EST References: <141@cvl.UUCP> <746@trwatf.UUCP> <1283@aecom.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: TRW Advanced Technology Facility, Merrifield VA. Lines: 68 >> Starving thousands of helpless people in remote third-world countries >> seems to test little. If we are to believe that God is just and >> merciful we should see it in everyday life... yet reality provides >> glaring contradicitions. How can we love a God that allows (or >> according to your reasoning CREATES) such suffering when it seems >> to serve no useful purpose? If anything, reality provides a >> great deal of evidence that God is not merciful or just. > > How can you love any person, who upon hearing of the starving in > Africa does not donate money to help those who are starving... "Are you to accuse man now in order to justify God?" > Just as you don't judge people by these standards, so too, don't judge > G-D by these standards. The question should not be how can G-D let > this happen. What do you mean "Just as you don't judge people by these standards...?" We certainly DO judge each other by these standards, and we judge God by higher standards because he demands so much more of us! Does man claim to be perfect? Does man claim to love his neighbor unconditionally? Does man claim to care for all of his children? Does man claim to protect "his people" forever and ever. Who is it that promises eternal life? Who is it that demands unconditional love and obedience... God or man? God is judged by high standards because of his claims. But who can love a God that does not live up to them? > Rather ask, how can man let it happen. Many of our problems (especially those in East Africa) are, in fact, attributible to human mismanagement, you are right about this. And the more generous of us CAN do something about it. One can easily rationalize the view that man is an extension of God's love. That's one reason why he established the belief in Christ (who advocated "love thy neighbor" etc). To claim, however, that it's ALL man's fault and that a Holy God is somehow aloof and removed from the cause of the suffering does not show balance. It displays the typically exagerated doctrine of a human belief. Man cannot be held responsible for the climate. Similarly, we cannot be held responsible for any natural disaster that brings death and mutilation. Is man responsible for the painful myriad of birth defects that often end in early death? Is it man's fault that desease strikes down those least capable of coping with such misery? Tell me why man should be held responsible for events that are beyond his control? The answer to your question is, "Man can only sit by, watch it happen and try to ease the suffering after the fact." But if God is indeed a loving God, why does he create such torment for these people when there is NOTHING that humanity can do to prevent it? The problem is that man did not create the situation (if we accept Mr. Harwood's premise that GOD CREATED suffering for some positive purpose). If God created this useless suffering then why is it man's responsibility to clean up the mess? But more importantly, what "divine purpose" could possibly justify such deliberate cruelty? -- UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root - Lord Frith ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO "And Frith made the world"